Hi folks,

Car is a MK4 Ford Focus Vignale.

I recently had a front and rear dashcam installed, followed more recently by a reversing camera. 

A few days after the reversing camera was installed we started receicing alerts from the Ford app saying 'remote features disabled to preserve battery'. 

I have a car battery smart charger and put a full charge on the battery and the issue went away, however 3-4 days later and the issue has returned. So something is almost certainly sucking juice while the car is off, I highly suspect either the dashcam or reversing camera.

The dashcam is the Viofo A229 Plus and has the hardwire kit (https://www.viofo.com/blogs/viofo-car-dash-camera-guide-faq-and-news/how-to-install-the-hardwire-kit-a-step-by-step-guide?srsltid=AfmBOop_SHI5ZLC6zcuxdSQ1ahMWL1rsg2XojjrZkHqadnBK_boIeN55)

I had a look in the passenger fuse box to check the installers handywork and it looks correct, the red wire is on a constant live, yellow cable is on an accessory (12v when ignition on) and black is grounded. So I don't think this is a the problem as it's installed correctly. An important thing to note is i have the Parking Mode OFF as I know this can be an issue with draining batteries with these dashcams.

For the reversing camera, I'm not sure how to get at the wiring to take a look. Would I need to remove the boot trim? Would anyone be able to guide through this process? I'm guessing he's connected it to the rear brake light but i want to take a look.

Thanks

I suspect this is nothing more than your original battery coming to the end of it's life. The Ford fitted battery usually fails between 3 and 4 years of age.

Using your Smart charger (negative lead connected to the chassis earth point) you need to charge the battery for a full 24 hours to get the State Of Charge (SOC) to the maximum the battery will accept.

Measure the battery voltage about 1 to 2 hours after the charge has finished and see what the SOC is.

2 hours ago, Crafty14 said:

I'm guessing he's connected it to the rear brake light but

I think you will find the reverse camera is connected to the reverse light circuit, not the brake.

13 hours ago, unofix said:

I suspect this is nothing more than your original battery coming to the end of it's life. The Ford fitted battery usually fails between 3 and 4 years of age.

Using your Smart charger (negative lead connected to the chassis earth point) you need to charge the battery for a full 24 hours to get the State Of Charge (SOC) to the maximum the battery will accept.

Measure the battery voltage about 1 to 2 hours after the charge has finished and see what the SOC is.

I think you will find the reverse camera is connected to the reverse light circuit, not the brake.

Not necessarily, on my focus the reverse light is a lower voltage one I believe about 5volt, so I had to run my reverse camera of an ignition live in the fuse box itself.

@unofix - Can I remove the car battery and charge it indoors? I don't have a sheltered spot to leave the charger on for 24hours. Also how important is it that the negative is connected to a chassis point and not the battery negative terminal?

27 minutes ago, Crafty14 said:

@unofix - Can I remove the car battery and charge it indoors? I don't have a sheltered spot to leave the charger on for 24hours. Also how important is it that the negative is connected to a chassis point and not the battery negative terminal?

If charged in the car, very as it will play havoc with the BMS that is on the negative terminal of the battery 

If charged out of the car it'll take a few key cycles for the BMS to update.  Do not do the BMS reset procedure as that also resets things like battery age which are used to control charge rates.

Just be aware if you remove the battery then the central locking will not operate. This is a MAJOR problem on the Focus since you need to be able to open the passenger door in order to pull the bonnet release.

The only real option is to leave the car unlocked and remove the battery. Then from inside the car go around all the doors and lock them from the inside. Finally use the manual emergency key blade to lock the drivers door using the lock on the out side. Reverse the process to get back in and open the passenger door.

Do NOT use the central locking to lock the doors before you remove the battery.

Charge the battery for a minimum of 24 hours with your Smart charger, even if after a few hours it is saying that it is charged. After fully charging the battery put it back in the car and after waiting at least an hour check to see what the SOC is.

Do not reset the BMS system, it will sort itself out after the battery has been refitted although it can take up to 24 hours for it to recalculate the correct SOC.